Current methods do not allow for sampling of in situ water from unsaturated fractures in low-moisture environments. A novel cryogenic coring technique based on the method developed by Simon and Cooper (1996) is used to collect in situ water in unsaturated fractures. This method uses liquid nitrogen as the drilling fluid, which can freeze the fracture water in place while coring. Laboratory experiments are conducted to demonstrate that water in an unsaturated fracture can be frozen and collected using cryogenic coring.

Molecular recognition in biological systems typically involves large numbers of interactions simultaneously. By using a multivalent approach, weak interactions with fairly low specificity can become strong highly specific interactions. Additionally, this allows an organism to control the strength and specificity of an interaction simply by controlling the number of binding molecules (or binding sites), which in turn can be controlled through transcriptional regulation.

We present the results of numerical simulations of an atomistic system undergoing plastic shear flow in the athermal, quasistatic limit. The system is shown to undergo cascades of local re-arrangements, associated with quadrupolar energy fluctuations, which induce system-spanning events organized into lines of slip oriented along the Bravais axes of the simulation cell. A finite size scaling analysis reveals subextensive scaling of the energy drops and participation numbers, linear in the length of the simulation cell, in good agreement with the real-space structure of plastic events

Approximately 6,200 cubic meters of waste containing about 2.0E8 MBq of radium-226 are stored in two large silos at the Fernald Site in southwest Ohio. The material is scheduled for retrieval, packaging, off site shipment and disposal by burial. Air in the silos above the stored material contained radon-222 at a concentration of 7.4 E5 Bq/L. Short-lived daughters formed by decay in these headspaces generated dose rates at contact with the top of the silos up to 1.05 mSv/hr and there complicate the process of retrieval. A Radon Control System (RCS) employing carbon adsorption beds has been designed under contract with the Fluor Fernald to remove most of the radon in the headspaces and maintain lower concentrations during periods when work on or above the domes is needed. Removing the radon also removes the short-lived daughters and reduces the dose rate near the domes to 20 to 30 {mu}Sv/hr. Failing to remove the radon would be costly, in the exposure of personnel needed to work extended periods at these moderate dose rates, or in dollars for the application of remote retrieval techniques. In addition, the RCS minimizes the potential for environmental releases. This paper describes the RCS, its mode of …

Residual radioactive waste was removed from Tank 18F in the F-Area Tank Farm at Savannah River Site (SRS), using the advanced design mixer pump (ADMP). Known as a slurry pump, the ADMP is a 55 foot long pump with an upper motor mounted to a steel super structure, which spans the top of the waste tank. The motor is connected by a long vertical drive shaft to a centrifugal pump, which is submerged in waste near the tank bottom. The pump mixes, or slurries, the waste within the tank so that it may be transferred out of the tank. Tank 18F is a 1.3 million gallon, 85 foot diameter underground waste storage tank, which has no internal components such as cooling coils or structural supports. The tank contained a residual 47,000 gallons of nuclear waste, consisting of a gelatinous radioactive waste known as sludge and particulate zeolite. The prediction of the ADMP success was based on nearly twenty five years of research and the application of that research to slurry pump technology. Many personnel at SRS and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) have significantly contributed to these efforts. This report summarizes that research which is pertinent to the ADMP performance …

Traditionally building simulation models are used at the design phase of a building project. These models are used to optimize various design alternatives, reduce energy consumption and cost. Building performance assessment for the operational phase of a buildings life cycle is sporadic, typically working from historical metered data and focusing on bulk energy assessment. Building Management Systems (BMS) do not explicitly incorporate feedback to the design phase or account for any changes, which have been made to building layout or fabric during construction. This paper discusses a proposal to develop an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) compliant data visualization tool Building Performance Indicator (BuildingPI) for performance metric and performance effectiveness ratio evaluation.

Geologic carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) sequestration is being considered as a way to offset fossil-fuel-related CO{sub 2} emissions to reduce the rate of increase of atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations. The accumulation of vast quantities of injected carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) in geologic sequestration sites may entail health and environmental risks from potential leakage and seepage of CO{sub 2} into the near-surface environment. We are developing and applying a coupled subsurface and atmospheric surface-layer modeling capability built within the framework of the integral finite difference reservoir simulator TOUGH2. The overall purpose of modeling studies is to predict CO{sub 2} concentration distributions under a variety of seepage scenarios and geologic, hydrologic, and atmospheric conditions. These concentration distributions will provide the basis for determining above-ground and near-surface instrumentation needs for carbon sequestration monitoring and verification, as well as for assessing health, safety, and environmental risks. A key feature of CO{sub 2} is its large density ({rho} = 1.8 kg m{sup -3}) relative to air ({rho} = 1.2 kg m{sup -3}), a property that may allow small leaks to cause concentrations in air above the occupational exposure limit of 4 percent in low-lying and enclosed areas such as valleys and basements where dilution rates …

This paper presents a summary of the performance of our 2 kHz rotary fast tool servo and an overview of its control systems. We also discuss the loop shaping techniques used to design the power amplifier current control loop and the implementation of that controller in an op-amp circuit. The design and development of the control system involved a long list of items including: current compensation; tool position compensation; notch filter design and phase stabilizing with an additional pole for a plant with an undamped resonance; adding viscous damping to the fast tool servo; voltage budget for driving real and reactive loads; dealing with unwanted oscillators; ground loops; digital-to-analog converter glitches; electrical noise from the spindle motor switching power supply; and filtering the spindle encoder signal to generate smooth tool tip trajectories. Eventually, all of these topics will be discussed in detail in a Ph.D. thesis that will include this work. For the purposes of this paper, rather than present a diluted discussion that attempts to touch on all of these topics, we will focus on the first item with sufficient detail for providing insight into the design process.

Au foils were irradiated with a 100-TW, 100-fs laser at intensities greater than 10{sup 20} W/cm{sup 2} producing proton beams with a total yield of {approx} 10{sup 11} and maximum proton energy of > 9 MeV. Removing contamination from the back surface of Au foils with an Ar-ion sputter gun reduced the total yield of accelerated protons to less than 1% of the yield observed without removing contamination. Removing contamination the front surface (laser-interaction side) of the target had no observable effect on the proton beam. We present a one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation that models the experiment. Both experimental and simulation results are consistent with the back-surface acceleration mechanism described in the text.

This paper describes a face recognition method that is designed based on the consideration of anatomical and biomechanical characteristics of facial tissues. Elastic strain pattern inferred from face expression can reveal an individual's biometric signature associated with the underlying anatomical structure, and thus has the potential for face recognition. A method based on the continuum mechanics in finite element formulation is employed to compute the strain pattern. Experiments show very promising results. The proposed method is quite different from other face recognition methods and both its advantages and limitations, as well as future research for improvement are discussed.

The groundwater at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) contains many long-lived radionuclides, including {sup 99}Tc (technetium) and {sup 129}I (iodine), as a result of 828 underground nuclear weapons tests conducted between 1951 and 1992. We synthesized a body of data collected on the distribution of {sup 99}Tc and {sup 129}I in groundwater to assess their migration at NTS, at field scales over distances of hundreds of meters and for durations up to forty years and under hydrogeologic conditions very similar to the proposed geological repository at Yucca Mountain. The results of our study show that Tc does not necessarily exist as a mobile and conservative species TcO{sub 4}{sup -}, as has been commonly assumed. This conclusion is corroborated by recent in situ redox potential measurements, which show that groundwaters at multiple locations of the NTS are not oxidizing, and mobility of reduced Tc species (TcO{sub 2} {center_dot} nH{sub 2}O) is greatly decreased. Speciation of iodine and its associated reactivity is also complex in the groundwater at the NTS, and its effect on the mobility of iodine should be the subject of future studies.

Uranium contamination of soils and sediments often originates from acidic or alkaline waste sources, with diffusion being a major transport mechanism. Measurements of U(VI) diffusion from initially pH 2 and pH 11 solutions into a slightly alkaline Altamont soil and a neutral Oak Ridge soil were obtained through monitoring uptake from boundary reservoirs and from U concentration profiles within soil columns. The soils provided pH buffering, resulting in diffusion at nearly constant pH. Micro x-ray absorption near edge structure spectra confirmed that U remained in U(VI) forms in all soils. Time trends of U(VI) depletion from reservoirs, and U(VI) concentration profiles within soil columns yielded K{sub d} values consistent with those determined in batch tests at similar concentrations ({approx} 1 mM), and much lower than values for sorption at much lower concentrations (nM to {mu}M). These results show that U(VI) transport at high concentrations can be relatively fast at non-neutral pH, with negligible surface diffusion, because of weak sorption.

Protein and DNA structures are represented at varying levels of details using ellipsoidal RGBA textured splats. The splat texture at each level is generated by rendering its children in a hierarchical model, from a distribution of viewing directions, and averaging the result. For rendering, the ellipsoids to be used are chosen adaptively, depending on the distance to the viewpoint. This technique is applied to visualize DNA coiling around nucleosomes in chromosomes.

Tedious manual input of data that define a building, its systems and its expected pattern of use and operating schedules for building energy performance simulation has in the past diverted time and resources from productive simulation runs. In addition to its previously released IFCtoIDF utility that semiautomates the import of building geometry, the new IFC HVAC interface to EnergyPlus (released at the end of 2003) makes it possible to import and export most of the data that define HVAC equipment and systems in a building directly from and to other IFC compatible software tools. This reduces the manual input of other data needed for successful simulation with EnergyPlus to a minimum. The main purpose of this new interface is to enable import of HVAC equipment and systems definitions, generated by other IFC compatible software tools (such as HVAC systems design tools) and data bases, into EnergyPlus, and to write such definitions contained in EnergyPlus input files to the original IFC files from which building geometry was extracted for the particular EnergyPlus input. In addition, this interface sets an example for developers of other software tools how to import and/or export data other than building geometry from and/or into EnergyPlus. This …

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities are categorized by the level of hazard they pose to workers, the general public, and the environment. This paper applies the methodology outlined in DOE-STD-1027-92 and interpreted in recent DOE guidance to a nuclear material storage facility at the Savannah River Site to reduce the category of the facility to below HC-3.

Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and atmospheric dispersion models rely on parameterizations of planetary boundary layer height. In the case of a stable boundary layer, errors in boundary layer height estimation can result in gross errors in boundary-layer evolution and in prediction of turbulent mixing within the boundary layer. We use large-eddy simulations (LES) of moderately stable boundary layers to characterize the effects of various physical processes on stable boundary layers. The stable boundary layer height is assumed to be a function of surface friction velocity, geostrophic wind, Monin-Obukhov length, and the strength of the temperature inversion atop the stable boundary layer. This temperature inversion induces gravity waves with a frequency determined by the strength of the temperature inversion.

I present a promising route to harmonize distance measurements based on clump giants and RR Lyrae stars. This is achieved by comparing the brightness of these distance indicators in three environments: the solar neighborhood, Galactic bulge and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). As a result of harmonizing the distance scales in the solar neighborhood and Baade's Window, I derive the new absolute magnitude of RR Lyrae stars, M{sub v}(RR) at [Fe/H] = -1.6 (0.59 {+-} 0.05, 0.70 {+-} 0.05). Being somewhat brighter than the statistical parallax solution, but fainter than typical results of the main sequence fitting to Hipparcos data, these values of M{sub V}(RR) favor intermediate or old ages of globular clusters. Harmonizing the distance scales in the LMC and Baade's Window, I show that the most likely distance modulus to the LMC, {mu}{sub LMC} is in the range 18.24 - 18.44. The Hubble constant of about 70 km/s/Mpc reported by the HST Key Project is based on the assumption that the distance modulus to the LMC equals 18.50. The results presented here indicate that the Hubble Constant may be up to 12% higher. This in turn would call for a younger Universe and could result in some tension between …

The new silicon detector design for CDF relies on advanced packaging solutions in order to attain the strict small size and low mass requirements dictated by the experiment's physics program. The silicon strip detector at CDF is composed of overlaying silicon sensors in the form of a barrel around the colliding beam. The electronic instrumentation (sensors, readout and transceiver chips) is assembled into the staves of this barrel. In this paper we describe the development of the mini port card (MPC). The MPC is located at one of the ends of the stave, and it is responsible for signal translation and repetition from the readout chips to and from the data acquisition system (DAQ). The MPC's development has taken two approaches that use different technologies. One of the approaches uses BeO as the board substrate (BeO-MPC), while the other approach uses a hybrid rigid-flexible polyimide substrate (Poly-MPC). We present test results of pre-production parts, each one assembled with a different MPC packaging technology. Complete thermal and electrical characterization of the MPC is shown, and the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies, as well as their influence in the overall system performance, are presented.

Minimizing building life cycle energy consumption is becoming of paramount importance. Performance metrics tracking offers a clear and concise manner of relating design intent in a quantitative form. A methodology is discussed for storage and utilization of these performance metrics through an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) instantiated Building Information Model (BIM). The paper focuses on storage of three sets of performance data from three distinct sources. An example of a performance metrics programming hierarchy is displayed for a heat pump and a solar array. Utilizing the sets of performance data, two discrete performance effectiveness ratios may be computed, thus offering an accurate method of quantitatively assessing building performance.

None

At the Savannah River Site (SRS), the High-Level Waste (HLW) Tank Farms store and process high-level liquid radioactive wastes from the Canyons and recycle water from the Defense Waste Processing Facility. The waste is concentrated using evaporators to minimize the volume of space required for HLW storage. Recently, the 2H Evaporator was shutdown due to the crystallization of sodium aluminosilicate (NAS) solids (such as cancrinite and sodalite) that contained close to 10 weight percent of elementally-enriched uranium (U). Prior to extensive cleaning,the evaporator deposits resided on the evaporator walls and other exposed internal surfaces within the evaporator pot. Our goal is to support the basis for the continued safe operation of SRS evaporators and to gain more information that could be used to help mitigate U accumulation during evaporator operation.

We show that CP asymmetries in b {yields} s hadronic decays are potentially affected by the presence of massive color-octet particles strongly coupled to the third generation quarks. Theories with warped extra dimensions provide natural candidates in the Kaluza-Klein excitations of gluons in scenarios where flavor-breaking by bulk fermion masses results in the localization of fermion wave-functions. Topcolor models, in which a new gauge interaction leads to top-condensation and a large top mass, also result in the presence of these color-octet states with TeV masses. We find that large effects are possible in modes such as B {yields} {phi}K{sub s}, B {yields} {eta}{prime}K{sub s} and B {yields} {pi}{sup 0}K{sub s} among others.

We present a high throughput (f/3) visible (3500 - 7000 Angstrom) Doppler spectrometer for toroidal rotation velocity measurements of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak plasma. The spectrometer has a temporal response of 1 ms and a rotation velocity sensitivity of {approx}10{sup 5} cm/s. This diagnostic will have a tangential view and map out the plasma rotation at several locations along the outer half of the minor radius (r/a > 0.5). The plasma rotation will be determined from the Doppler shifted wavelengths of D{sub alpha} and magnetic and electric dipole transitions of highly ionized impurities in the plasma. The fast time resolution and high spectral resolving power are possible due to a 6' diameter circular transmission grating that is capable of {lambda}/{Delta}{lambda} {approx} 15500 at 5769 Angstrom in conjunction with a 50 {micro}m slit.

We describe an innovative highly parallel application program, ParaDiS, which computes the plastic strength of materials by tracing the evolution of dislocation lines over time. We discuss the issues of scaling the code to tens of thousands of processors, and present early scaling results of the code run on a prototype of the BlueGene/L supercomputer being developed by IBM in partnership with the US DOE's ASC program.